[Epidemiology : reports and papers]

Abstract

I spent my placement for the Masters of Applied Epidemiology at the Communicable Diseases Section, within the Commonwealth Department of Health, l Housing and Community Services, located in Woden, ACT. The functions of the I ' Section are to conduct national surveillance of communicable diseases, publish these epidemiological data in the Communicable Diseases Intelligence, on a fortnightly basis and integrate public health policy on a national level. The Section also coordinates the functions of the Communicable Diseases Network (Australia and New Zealand) and supports various public health committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council. During my two year placement, I have contributed to the surveillance of tuberculosis by designing a national surveillance system for tuberculosis. As well, I have enhanced the surveillance of drug resistance patterns for the anti tuberculous drugs used in Australia, by networking with the TB Reference Laboratories. During my placement, I have also been involved with the Communicable and Environmental Diseases Control Section of the ACT Board of Health. My role there is in supporting the Manager of the unit in areas of outbreak investigation and public health response in an outbreak. My experiences in outbreak investigation have been gained entirely in the ACT. These experiences are described in this submission. I would like to declare that all my contributions are original and that all collaboration with other workers is indicated where appropriate. This bound volume consist of nine sections, each of which is accompanied by attachments.